Dear Friend,
With the help of your generous donation, Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) Leadership Academy touched the lives of another 81 Bulgarian girls in 2016.
The participants this year came from 27 different communities from all around the country. We were proud to have among them current members of the National Team of Bulgaria in Biology for 2016 (one of which is a bronze medalist from the 27th International Biology Olympiad) and the National Team of Bulgaria in First Aid for 2016, as well as former members of the National Team in Synchronized Swimming.
Beside our main interactive sessions dedicated to leadership, teamwork, effective communication, decision making, public speaking, online image and gender roles, a special focus was posed on healthy living and eating disorders prevention. All participants took part in a specially organized by GLOW social campaign in Veliko Tarnovo on promoting positive attitude.
The Academy does not end with the conclusion of the activities during the one-week long camp. After all participants went home, they were asked to provide feedback and deeper evaluation of their experience so next year GLOW Leadership Academy can be even better. This is what one of participants shared:
"I can confidently say that what I have learned in the span of only a week will always be a big part of me growing up and developing as an individual. With the help of the wonderful people on GLOW, I’m now on the road to being a more creative, disciplined and far more self-reliant person. I'm surely looking forward to taking what I’ve learned and applying it in the future – in my everyday life and beyond." (Viktoria Hristova, 18 years old)
As a conclusion to this year’s camp and continuation to next year’s, GLOW has launched a competition for choosing the trainers for GLOW Leadership Academy 2017 so by the end of October, 10 girls that took part in Academy this year, will be selected to come back next summer as trainers.
Once again, we would like to thank you for supporting the GLOW Leadership Academy!
Sincerely,
GLOW Bulgaria
Links:
The final stage of the preparation phase of Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) Leadership Academy 2016 successfully started in March 2016 with the opening of the application process for this year's participants.The GLOW trainers conducted presentations in schools all over the country in desire to reach girls of different descents, interests and from different regions of Bulgaria.
Almost 200 girls aged 14 to 18 years old from all parts of the country started the online application process. In the beginning of June after a hard evaluation process 60 girls were selected to take part in GLOW Leadership Academy 2016.
In the same time 7 social campaigns in 6 communities all over Bulgaria were organized by the 2016 GLOW Leadership Academy trainers in order to put in practice what they have learnt during the Academy. The initiatives took place April - June and included:
The ecological initiative Let's make Plovdiv blossom of GLOW team member Bozhidara Kiryakova, was even included in the official international program of the celebrations of the European Youth Service Day. This is what she shared:
"The campaign was focused on one of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations - Sustainable cities and communities. In order to attract more attention, I submitted the plan of my project on ysa.org . People came on April 22, 2016 and together we made a change in our community of several blocks of flats. There were people from any age - friends of mine, neighbors and workers from the local coffee shop nearby. We planted flowers, removed the grass that was covering the entire area and decorated the green area to make it even more attractive. After a two-hour working process we managed to transform our local green area into a small lovely garden that will blossom throughout the entire summer. I'm glad that even people passing by us while we were working stopped and even asked us about our project and our goals in the end. All of those people left with a smile on their faces and that gives me hope that they will follow our example, making Plovdiv a modern Garden of Eden."
Links:
The preparation of Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) Leadership Academy 2016 continues actively. The staff team of the Academy, selected in November, underwent an intensive 3-day training that focused on group moderation, techniques for successful teamwork, working with children etc. The training was conducted by experienced Alumnae of the Academy. The new staff members will also take a number of online trainings and workshops over the next four months in order to improve their presentation skills and knowledge of the topics discussed during the Academy.
The staff members, girls 16 to 18 years old from 8 different towns and cities around Bulgaria, will be responsible for leading group activities for this year’s campers as well supporting the overall organization of the Academy.
Viktoria Kostova, one of the staff members, shares on her motivation to become a voluntary trainer in GLOW Leadership Academy: “Now, after the GLOW Leadership Academy 2015, I feel like I have walked a long path to myself and I have grown. I have more discipline and independence and I am far more self-reliant. I improved my leadership skills and skill at team working and communicating, also my public speaking and the ability to properly and effectively manage my time in order to go through the obstacles with ease and to enlist my priorities simultaneously I was having so much fun. It is unbelievable how fulfilled I am feeling and how satisfied with all THIS I am. It is a miracle, you should trust me. I want to develop, to make a big change, to help and to give support.(…) My biggest passion is helping others grow and lifting them up. I strongly believe that if a person wants to achieve his/her aims in life, he should not only devote diligent efforts to his purpose, but in every caught opportunity his most important obligation is to try to support others and give them strength and hope. I want to share my experience with these young GLOW girls and to teach them about contemporary topics they are concerned with.”
Dear GLOW Family,
It is that time of the year, when we all look back at the last twelve months and reflect on how much we appreciate all our GLOW supporters.
In 2015, you helped us change the lives of 80 Bulgarian girls through empowerment training. You helped us make their communities a better place by giving young leaders the knowledge and skills on how to provoke social change.
A participant in GLOW Leadership Academy 2015 shares her experience:
"For me GLOW was home. I felt safe and supported. I knew I could express myself, my values while not being judged. That is an amazing feeling. Everything that I learned was valuable. I met so many new and amazing friends and experienced tons of new and exciting things. It is surprising that all of this somehow fit into one week. One single week changed me and I am sure it changed a lot of other participates as well. If I use one word to describe GLOW, I would have said: “Priceless."
With such inspiring results of GLOW Leadership Academy 2015, we are now looking forward to 2016, when we will once again aim to change the lives of 80 young Bulgarian women.
Wishing you and your family a GLOWing and happy holidays!
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
Make a monthly donation & get 
